OH, HERE WE GO - AT 8:58 P.M. ET:  Okay, start taking the airsickness pills.  We're in for another presidential address beamed to all those people who, if it hadn't been for BUSH (!!) would absolutely adore us and all we stand for.  From The Washington Post:

President Obama will make his promised speech to the Muslim world from Egypt, a White House official said on Friday.

Obama pledged during the campaign to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital within the first few months of taking office. Picking a site proved challenging for a range of reasons -- from diplomacy to security -- and the decision took longer than expected, with Obama commissioning options from a research team.

Having settled on Egypt, the White House today announced that he is adding a stop there to his early June overseas trip. That trip will also take him to Normandy, France, for the anniversary of D-Day, and to the Buchenwald concentration camp and Dresden, Germany.

Choosing Egypt will inevitably bring comparisons with a major speech that then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave in Cairo 2005, urging democracy and reform in the Middle East.

COMMENT:  Since we have no text of the speech, we can't comment on it.  But the timing is awkward and may turn out to be inappropriate.  The president will be visiting the invasion beaches at Normandy.  He will be visiting Buchenwald.  These are sacred places.  It's jolting to have the president add to a pilgrimage like that by flying to a dictatorship and making a speech to people who are often taught views barely distinguishable from those of the Third Reich. 

Of course, the president may use his visits to Normandy and Buchenwald to teach a moral lesson as he addresses the Muslim world.  But, so far, his overseas speeches have been embarrassments.  We wait for the text, and hope that Mr. Obama will learn enough from the military cemetery at Normandy to realize that praise for his country's history and heritage, not apology, would be the finest way to begin his address to the world's Muslims. 

May 8, 2009